Hand-held irrigation-suction devices have long been used in surgical and dental procedures for various purposes at the operating site, or wound, including flushing of debris from the operating site and clearing the site, by suction, of debris, excess irrigant fluid, blood, and other unwanted flowable material.
A typical prior suction-irrigator handpiece is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,675. Such prior handpiece includes a handle with irrigant fluid and suction passageways extending therethrough and mounts a detachable pair of working tips at its operating end, communicating with and continuing the irrigant and suction passageways of the handle. At the supply end of the handle, the passageways are connectible to suitable irrigant fluid and vacuum sources, through flexible conduits. To permit the operator (e.g., surgeon or dentist or assistant thereto) to achieve some degree of control of flow in the irrigant and suction passages, the handpiece is provided with a relief opening through the wall of the suction passage, which relief hole can be opened or closed by the index finger of the operator to vary the suction at the suction tip. In other words, with the hole open, the vacuum source draws through the hole as well as the tip and air leaking through the hole into the suction passageway necessarily reduces the suction strength, and hence material removal capability at the suction tip, opening of the hole, in effect "short circuiting" or substantially shutting off the suction at the tip.
On the other hand, the need to shut off the irrigant flow to the tip at the handpiece has, in the aforementioned prior art device, required incorporation of a manually actuable irrigant fluid valve in the irrigant fluid passageway in the handpiece, which substantially increases the structural complexity of the handpiece, the cost of the handpiece and, where the handpiece is to be reused, the difficulty of cleaning and sterilizing same. These difficulties particularly appear where the irrigant flow control valve in the handle is not only responsible for portioning of flow in the limited portion of the range of flow rates available, but is also to be responsible for a complete shut-off of irrigant fluid flow to the tip.
A further difficulty arises where, as in the aforementioned patented structure, the same irrigant valve is structure to handle both proportioning and complete shut-off of irrigant flow. Such a valve typically requires progressively increasing movement and pressure by the operator on the valve actuator to progressively open the valve against a resilient closing element. Whereas the operator may wish to merely select between two conditions, namely no irrigant flow and one irrigant flow rate intermediate the range of flow rates available through the valve, he nevertheless must maintain just the right finger pressure and displacement on the valve to effect that desired flow rate and any inadvertent operator change in finger pressure and position will result in an unwanted change in irrigant flow rate. Accordingly, the operator is required to devote to the irrigant flow valve an unnecessarily large portion of his attention, which could otherwise be directed to the dental or surgical procedure which he is performing or assisting.
Accordingly, the objects of this invention include provision of:
An irrigation-suction handpiece assembly for dental and surgical use at an operating site, which includes a handle having reduced complexity, cost and increased ease in cleaning and sterilizing.
A handpiece assembly, as aforesaid, having a handle free of manual irrigant flow valves, but which permits one-handed supporting of the handle, and shutting off or turning on of irrigant flow through the handpiece, and selection between full or reduced suction.
A handpiece assembly, as aforesaid, providing for location of an irrigant flow shut-off valve either adjacent or remote from the handle and further providing for remote air control of said valve by the hand of the operator as it grasps the handle.
Other objects and purposes of this invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.